Newbie with Questions

[Chiefmcfuz]

Maybe you should listen to people before getting defensive. Many of us have made the mistakes you just made and have had to spend money to upgrade to better equipment to sustain our reefs. The reason everyone told you to stay away from the seaclown is because it is a waste of money, it couldn't skim protein from a full waste collection cup of another real skimmer. If you truly are a poor grad student I would think you would want to save as much money as you could in the long run, but maybe economics isn't your major.

FYI Chocolate starfish are not reef safe, they eat corals that is why I asked if it was going to be a species only tank. If you want help please keep asking, if you want validation you won't find it here with most of us.

 

[Narmical]

So much for asking for advice then doing the exact things people tell you is bad.

#1) just because someone tells me something is bad, does not make it bad.

#2) I didnt see your post untill after i went shoping. excuse me for not checking a board i just joined all the time.

Yes, they will all fit, but you would not need 40 snails to keep a 10 gallon tank clean. You will just end up with bunch shells after they starve to death.
Do you even know what are the habitat and diet requirement for a CC star?

if 40 snails will starve in a 10 gallon tank why even sugest it? you are realy not being helpfull.

And yes i do know they like shelterd sandy enviroments. Also they enjoy sea grass. They like to eat various marine meats, particulary clams and scalops.

so is 40 snails too many for a 55 gallon tank? Someone else who i was discussing my aquarium with sugested that would be a good number of snails for the tank i wanted.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Good luck with your tank.

 

[cali_reef]

if 40 snails will starve in a 10 gallon tank why even sugest it? you are realy not being helpfull.

I never suggested to get 40 snails, you listed them. CC star are slow movers, you think it can find food you left for it in a 55 gallon tank.

I am done with newbies.

 

[JHOV2324]

Did you also know cc stars are not Reef Safe....they might eat corals....:eat:...

These guys are just trying to help you....listen to what they are saying..if they say its bad its cause they tried it and it did not work...i had a seaclone and said it worked and realized after getting a better skimmer it was the right thing to do....so far you filtration doesnt seem sufficient....u should really plan things out again...get info and advice from the reefers on this board then go out and buy..

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

I cannot cover all your questions but most of them are answered by other already.

Hi!

Physical Setup

55g Glass Tank (if you plan to do spectacular aquascaping 55G is hard because the depth limits your choices. Unless you are going for a nano I 18" depth is a minimum and 24" being optimal)
350B Penguin Bio-Wheel Filter (330 gph recommended for 70g tank) (You have so many inverts you want to keep so Bio-wheel Filter is not a right choice. It's designed to take out ammonia and nitrite but not nitrate. You inverts will have adverse effects with this type of filter)
Prizm Protein Skimmer (recommended for 90g tank)
sweeping head power head (160 gph to have more water circulation in the tank)
200 watt submersible heater
150 lbs of Tropical Play Sand (its aragonite sand but less expensive because its marketed for sand boxes, i plan to have a deep sand bed(this will remove nitrate), i estimate this will be enough for the task)

Other Things On The Shopping List

Thermometer
Water Quality Test Kit
Salt Mix
Hydrometer
Hose

Livestock

Cerith Snail 20
Turbo Snails 20 (if you are talking about mexican turbos, zebra turbos, they will need lot of algae)
Peppermint shrimp 2

Chocolate Chip Star Fish (this is the main animal i want to keep)

Questions
Sump?
Should i or should i not. I purchsed a 20g tall tank off craigs list yesterday with the intention of builing a sump out of it. Im not extremly handy but i have friends that are (one is a set builder, the other is a head custdian of an elimentry school). If i do build a sump, would the sump remove the need for the bio-wheel filter? From my research it seems like it could. If it can, what design conciderations are there to get the sump to fill this role. (If you make the sump also a refugium with macro algae, sand bed and some mechanical filter media, it can be your main filter, let alone bio-wheel is not proper for your live stock.)

Lighting?
As im not planing to have any light requrering animals would just normal incandesant or floresant lighting suffice? (Even if you have the strongest incandesant light, I would go for floresant because incandesant light just does not look right for SW tanks.)

Live Rock?
any advice on the amount of live rock would be great.
(In youre case, the more the merrier since you don't keep fish which needs open swimming space. Extra rocks give extra surface of algae for the inverts and extra house for filtering bacteria.)

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[Narmical]

You raised issue with the bio-wheel filter. I agree that it does not process N03. Are you sugesting removing it or replacing it with something else?

This was my method of thinking when i decided on the filter.

1) Livestock Makes Amonia
2) Bactieria in bio wheel eat Amoia and make N02
3) Diffrent Bacteria in bio wheel eat N02 and make N03
4) Still Diffrent Bacteria in deep sand bed eat N03 and make N2 gass
5) Cerith Snail digs around in sand releasing N2 into the water
6) N2 bubbles to the surface


so you think 20 turbo snails is too many? would 10 be beter?

 

[JHOV2324]

why are you asking about the turbo snails....:scratch:

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

You raised issue with the bio-wheel filter. I agree that it does not process N03. Are you sugesting removing it or replacing it with something else?

This was my method of thinking when i decided on the filter.

1) Livestock Makes Amonia
2) Bactieria in bio wheel eat Amoia and make N02(if you decided to make a sump, you must have a return pump already therefore, no need to have an extra motor which bio-wheel requires. Extra motor means extra heat. )
3) Diffrent Bacteria in bio wheel eat N02 and make N03
4) Still Diffrent Bacteria in deep sand bed eat N03 and make N2 gass
5) Cerith Snail digs around in sand releasing N2 into the water
6) N2 bubbles to the surface


so you think 20 turbo snails is too many? would 10 be beter?[/quote] (Depends on your algae amount, you really have to see for yourself start with few and add up later if they cannot keep up with your algae production in the tank or your provision of algae to the tank.)

So can you list what you have purchased so far and which ones you can return?

 

[Narmical]

ok i think i understand it now.

so i guess it is posible to have too much filtration (as limited by the heat byproduct)

can you sugest a good amount of snals to start with?

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Garp?

 

[Wes]

can you sugest a good amount of snals to start with?

1 snail per gallon

 

[Narmical]

1 snail per gallon

so you would sugest 55?

i think ill go with a smaller number to start. say 20, and if there is more alge avalable, ill get more at that point.

i dont want to doom any snails to death by starvation

does this sound like a good plan?

 

[Wes]

so you would sugest 55?

i think ill go with a smaller number to start. say 20, and if there is more alge avalable, ill get more at that point.

i dont want to doom any snails to death by starvation

does this sound like a good plan?

sounds like a good plan to me...you should mix up the species as well...Different snails eat different stuff.

 

[Narmical]

Ok cool. Thanks for the usefull information

 

[Wes]

no prob

 

[NYreefNoob]

tank

this would be my suggestion for you. go to the tank thread, as most of us have made a thread of our tanks which include tank size, equipment, live stock and ect. i did the doubt thing and bought decent equipment, and guess what i ended up upgrading just about everything.

 

[Narmical]

Thankyour all for your advice.

As such i returned the seaclone skimmer and purchased a Coralife 125 skimmer from another member.

 

[Wes]

Thankyour all for your advice.

As such i returned the seaclone skimmer and purchased a Coralife 125 skimmer from another member.

good move